Ghana has turned into a country which lavishes sensational news, where judgments are passed without deep thoughts into what made up the news.
The media in Ghana is gradually being overtaken by media terrorists who feed the nation falsehood in order to achieve their selfish, evil and destructive goals. What is surprising, or even shocking, is that some of the intelligent and well-read among us will take to the media to further add anxiety into the news, and turn the minds of people the other way other than the truth. Among these group of intelligent men and women who are seriously failing this nation are some know-it-all senior journalists and heads of think-thank groups.
The way this nation is going where the truth is being suppressed, sooner than later we may be on a collision path and clash into an imminent civil war.
I urge all Ghanaians to carefully analyse every bit of information, and dissect and pick out the facts that can allay the fears of the general public.
Recently, a male Ghanaian, probably resident in the United Kingdom, who gave his name as Kofi Acheampong, was in the news claiming that he was travelling back to his post, and, as mandated, took a Covid-19 test at the Noguchi Memorial Institute at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, on January 10, 2021, and when he went for the results on January 12, 2021, he was certified as tested positive.
Kofi went on to say that one of the staff members of the institute collected a bribe of GH¢500 from him and produced to him a result which put him in the negative status. So he was able to board a British Airways flight to the UK that day, and when he had arrived he went for a test again, and it came out that it was negative. Kofi was said to have produced the first test certificate from Noguchi, which showed he has positive with Covid-19.
And this story has been accepted hook, line and sinker by Ghanaians without further probes?
First and foremost, it is very important for Kofi Acheampong to produce the second certificate, which, unfortunately, he hasn’t done so to date. Ghanaians must be allowed to scrutinise both certificates to find out which one is truly from Noguchi. This is so, because, it is becoming worrying news to hear of some travellers producing fake Covid-19 test certificates with Noguchi’s logo on them.
To protect the image of this great institution, the government must step up the game by providing the institute, and all institutes which test for the disease, with certificates with security features to make it impossible for anyone to produce a fake result.
Further on, these certificates must have barcodes in which all information must be relayed into. The barcode can be decoded at the airports where the truth or otherwise of the certificate will be certified.
Sources close to the Noguchi Memorial Institute disclosed to me the operations carried out there. Firstly, every step is password protected, and also index numbers are given to the samples throughout the stages, no name is recorded once the samples are collected and labelled before leaving for the testing rooms.
When the results are out, the one to print them out uses his or her password, and with the help of the index number, the name and details of the person tested appears on the certificate.
Fellow Ghanaians, at what stage in this process can anyone originate another certificate bearing the name of the person who was tested and give a different result?
Having asked that question, it is very important here to demand from Kofi Acheampong, the second certificate, and he should be bold to tell Ghanaians who that member of staff was, who was able to give him what he wants us to believe was the authentic result.
Ghanaians must also know that until just recently, after this story broke, British Airways was not checking Covid-19 test certificates from passengers boarding its flight. So it is very possible that Kofi Acheampong boarded that flight without declaring his true status.
And in the UK, arriving passengers are asked to take swabs of their nose and throat samples by themselves, and here any crook can play tricks for him or her to get negative results, and I believe this is what Kofi Acheampong might have done when he landed in the UK.
It is very important that Kofi Acheampong is traced in the UK for him to get tested again to disclose his true status. And even here, if his test comes negative, further tests will reveal whether he, indeed, once had Covid-19.
Government’s efforts in tackling this pandemic is being praised worldwide and some of our measures are now being adopted by powerful nations like the United States and United Kingdom. Yet, and true to Jesus’ Word that “no prophet is accepted in his own town,” many are those who find reasons, good or bad, to criticise every step the government takes in efforts to manage this pandemic.
So we are now in a situation where one of the most important places of testing in this country is being accused for falsifying results for a few cedis more. And our media practitioners in particular, and the general public as a whole, will not probe into this serious allegation, but rather fan it out of proportion.
In the end, the reputation of this country will dip low in the sight of the world. And for Ghanaians to lead in this destruction of our image is unpardonable, to say the least.
Our media terrorists, who include some of social media’s patrons, professional media practitioners, gurus of think-tanks and civil society organisations and panellists on talk shows, must lay down their weapons and start thinking and doing things objectively.
Meanwhile, I call on the government to trace up Kofi Acheampong in the UK to come and throw more light on this saga, by producing the certificate which cleared him and identifying and exposing the one who gave that certificate.
Hon Daniel Dugan
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
The post Media Terrorism and the Noguchi Saga appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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